Sharks' Couture to have surgery for upper-body injury

2013-2014 At the Rink BlogSharks' Couture to have surgery for upper-body injury

San Jose Sharks center Logan Couture will undergo a surgical procedure Wednesday on an upper-body injury and a timetable for his return to the lineup will not be available until after the procedure, general manager Doug Wilson said in a statement.

"For the past several weeks, Logan has been dealing and playing with an upper-body injury," Wilson said. "Despite his efforts to play through it, the injury has not responded as we had hoped and Logan has made the decision to undergo a surgical procedure to repair the problem.

"While the timing of the procedure is not ideal, Logan feels it is in his and the team's best interest to get the problem rectified now. Logan will undergo surgery on Wed., Jan. 8 and we will have a better update on the recovery time following the procedure."

According to multiple media reports, Couture has a hand injury and could be sidelined for 3-4 weeks.

"I wasn't practicing, had to numb it for games," he told the San Jose Mercury News. "It just got to the point where I couldn't do that for the entire season. We figured we wanted to be back for the end of the year, so we timed it this way."

Couture was left off the Canadian Olympic team when its roster was announced Tuesday.

Couture has 35 points in 43 games this season. He recently snapped out of a scoring slump by scoring goals in four straight games.

"I have a biased opinion," Couture told the Mercury News, "but I felt I should have been on that team. I've been left off a lot of teams in my past. Hopefully I can prove people wrong going forward."